Henry Jacobs: Snapshots from LaGrange

Snapshots from LaGrange

SlowExposures 2018

Location: A Novel Experience, Zebulon

I love seeing the way people in the south engage with their environment. Perhaps it’s because the immense fecundity of the region – its heat, lushness, isolation, history – becomes part of the fiber of life.

Waterways take a central role in my work due to the time I spend as an outreach director with Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. For all that our rivers, lakes and streams are worth – our source of drinking water, power, irrigation, recreation, etc. – we often fail to recognize their intrinsic beauty and vulnerability. The disconnection only grows deeper as more people choose to isolate themselves from natural environments. But thankfully there are those few who will wade out to catch an alligator snapping turtle or tromp through kudzu to collect a water sample. I want to celebrate them and perhaps invite others to join them.

In LaGrange, Georgia I look for moments of change. Like most towns in rural America, LaGrange seems to be searching for a new identity and a new model of sustainability in this new century. As a millennial I’ve connected with this on a personal level and it’s brought me closer to the world of documentary photography; I often use my phone to take photos, edit and then share them within minutes. At the same time, I appreciate the chance to linger in front of a print hanging on the wall and enter the world of that image. Scenes of storm clouds gathering over a shiny relic of the past or an immigrant grandmother in a calm moment or children exploring the world around them help me to lean more deeply into the moment, and by sharing them, hopefully they will help others to lean in as well.

- Henry M. Jacobs

Stop by and meet Henry Jacobs at A Novel Experience, the bookstore in Zebulon, throughout SlowExposures and the month of October, 2018. Visit Henry's website at http://henrymjacobs.com/